


I Feel the Pages Turning

by musicalgirl4474



Series: Psychology terms are Great Batfamily Prompts [2]
Category: Batman (Comics), Batman - All Media Types, Young Justice (Cartoon), Young Justice - All Media Types
Genre: Age Reversal, Bat Family, M/M, this family is a mess
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-02-03
Updated: 2019-02-03
Packaged: 2019-10-21 07:57:14
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,404
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17638859
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/musicalgirl4474/pseuds/musicalgirl4474
Summary: Social Psychologist- Focus on the SituationsSame people in different situations.Conner's not sure who this Red Hood is, but he hurt Red Bat. He's going to pay. Isn't he?“We’re family. And family never hurts each other. Never. ‘Cause this family’s all any of us have got left.”





	I Feel the Pages Turning

**Author's Note:**

> This one is a reverse age fic. Damian (Shadow) is eldest, followed by Tim (Red Bat), then Jason (Batboy/ Red Hood), and Dick (Robin) is the youngest.
> 
> Title is from the song 'Breathe' performed by Fleurie

When Red Hood appeared in Gotham, the rest of the hero community barely noticed it. When it got out that Red Hood had kidnapped Robin, the whole Justice League was suddenly mobilizing on a manhunt. No one messed with Robin and got away with it. (Not even Batman, who had once come up to the watchtower sporting a black eye courtesy of Shadow when he had pushed Robin a bit too far in training, causing the then nine-year-old boy to faint from dehydration).

Red Bat had come tearing through the mountain, all hard breaths and gasped words when he ran into Conner.

“Whoa,” Conner said, gripping Red Bat by his upper arms so that his boyfriend didn’t go tumbling to the floor as his knees gave out. “What happened?” He asked, alarmed, as he picked Red Bat up bridal style to deposit him on the couch in the nearby living room.

“Robin and I were ambushed,” Red Bat gasped. It was then that Conner noticed that Red Bat was missing his usual plethora of utility belts and gadgets. “I barely got away. Zeta to the Mountain was closest, so I ran there. Here. Whichever. But there was something else, something I need to tell someone . . .”

“You alright?” Conner asked, running a hand through Tim’s sweat-soaked hair. “You’re burning up,” he said, worried. “Your face is all red.”

“Drug, I’ll be fine.” Suddenly, he grabbed Conner by the shirt and pulled him down, blue eyes suddenly panicked. “That was it! Red Hood has Robin! Kon, you have to let Bats know! The Red Hood has Robin!” His eyes rolled back in his head and he fainted.

\---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

They say that people react differently in different situations with different people. Conner had seen Red Bat beat the crap out of people threatening his family before. He’d also seen him cuddling with the team and dancing with Spoiler. And he’d seen him indifferent as hell when anyone else would have been crying their eyes out. But he’d never seen (or, rather, heard) him pleading and desperate. Somehow, even still recovering from the drug in his system, and with the whole Justice League out searching, Red Bat had been the first to find the Red Hood.

“Jay come home. Please.” It was only due to his super hearing that Superboy heard the conversation taking place in the other room. When the team had finally gotten there, Red Bat had already been engaged in a fight with the Red Hood. As cool and calm in battle as always, he had instructed them to help Robin, who was tied (rather masterfully, he had to admit) from one of the exposed beams in the dilapidated apartment complex. The rest of the team had been very sceptical about leaving their leader to fight the criminal alone, but then the ancient building had given a groan and caused the doorway to the room where the fight was taking place to collapse. Probably because one of the fighters had been thrown into the wall.

“Red Bat!” Robin’s voice was young, scared. Miss Martian did her best to comfort the boy as Artemis worked on untying him.

“I’m fine!” His voice was muffled, but it sounded annoyed. 

“Could we not move the rubble?” Asked Aqualad.

“The building isn’t structurally sound,” Superboy said, letting his X-ray vision scan the integrity. “Too much shifting could bring the whole thing down.” Robin stood up then, rubbing his red wrists with an annoyed expression. He’d be joining the team soon, as well as Kid Flash. Conner wondered if that was a good idea. The kid was so small.

Superboy’s concentration was brought once again to bear on the blocked doorway to the other room. “Home? That cave aint a home, Little Bat.”

“Little!?” Tim’s voice squawked with indignation. “Little? I’m older than you by a few years!”

“And yet I’m bigger than you. You can’t make me do anything.”

“What’s your game, Jason?” Now Tim’s voice was tired. Whoever this ‘Jason’ was, it was obvious that Tim had met him before, knew him pretty well.

“My game? My game is to let Batman know that he can’t keep putting kids on the street. That it’s a curse to be the Batman’s partner. You know that to be the truth same as I do, Timothy.”

“It was my choice!” Wait, what!? Conner swung around from the door to look for Robin, but the boy was gone. The rest of the team looked dumbstruck, peering into shadows as if they had only just noticed he was missing as well, though they couldn’t hear the conversation going on in the other room.

Click. The sound of a safety coming off of a gun. Ominous.

“And how much training did he give you kid? A week? Two? And then he had you out on the streets that created and are run by the Joker and Two-Face and Killer Croc?”

“I’ve been an acrobat all my life.” Credit to the kid, even though Conner’s X-ray vision told him that the gun was pointed right at him, Robin’s voice was steady, maybe even a bit whiny. 

“What’s going on in there?” Artemis seemed worried, plucking at her bow string with nervous fingers.

“We may need to bust in there on a moment’s notice, structural integrity notwithstanding,” Conner murmured back.

“Leave him alone, Hood, he has nothing to do with this.” Tim moved to put himself between Robin and the gun.

“Is there any other way into that room?” Aqualad asked, squinting at the rubble-blocked door.

“No other doors,” Superboy responded, still watching the scene in the other room as Red Hood lowered the gun slightly. “The kid probably got in through what’s left of a vent, too small for any of us.”

“Come now Little Bat,” Red Hood said, voice patronizing. “No one’s coming to save you. Your team’s out there, the Justice League is nowhere near the area, and Big Bat’s not gonna even know you’re back in Gotham ‘till it’s too late.”

“Hood please, let’s just go home! Even Shadow misses you.” 

“Shadow? Please, I’d believe he misses me at about the same time I believe B misses me.”

“He does, though. He wants you to come home too.” The figures were still, speaking from positions that could turn into attack or defense at the slightest provocation.

Red Hood snorted. “You don’t know Bats like I do, Birdie. And you don’t know me.”

“I know you won’t hurt us.”

“And whatever gave you that idea?”

“We’re family. And family never hurts each other. Never. ‘Cause this family’s all any of us have got left.”

There was silence for a while before Red Hood put his gun back into its holster. “And how do you plan on convincing B of that, kid?”

“I won’t need to.”

“So confident.” Red Hood snorted. “That’s gonna get you in a bad situation one of these days.”

“I’m good with that if it gets you back to the manor.”

“I aint goin’ back Robin. I have to live my own life.”

“You’re not of age, Jason.”

“I was out on the streets before you put on the mask, Red Bat. I can take care of myself.”

“Then I wish you would, little brother.”

“I do just fine on my own.”

“Conner?” M’gann asked. “What’s going on in there?”

“It’s fine, I think the situation is under control.” Which was confusing in and of itself. Red Bat and Robin knew this criminal, in fact, he was their brother. And the voice had been vaguely familiar. Except . . . Batboy was dead. The Joker had murdered him. They’d seen the body (that had been the only time he’d ever seen Red Bat lose it entirely, falling to the ground, sobbing and screaming).

Conner had seen Red Bat cool as a cat whenever a teammate or himself was injured, he’d seen him angry and calculating during a fight, seen him cuddly and happy when he relaxed with the team. He’d seen him obsess over missions and stay up late in his room on his computer until he had dark circles under his eyes that even his shades didn’t cover. But it had always been different when Red Bat interacted with the other bats, with his family. Then, he was protective or exasperated or worried or sparked into anger by Shadow’s sharp tongue. And there was never a pattern. Not when he was with family.


End file.
